In yesterday’s game, Jose Quintana and Robin Ventura were ejected by home plate umpire Mark Wegner, prompting an epic rant by Ken “Hawk” Harrelson. In case you didn’t see the video Cheryl linked to yesterday before it was taken down, you can see it here at Deadspin. And in case you missed the backstory, go read Cheryl’s recap.

The ejections and the rant prompted a discussion at a White Sox message board I post at. Well, mainly the rant. The posters at the board are split relatively evenly between those who like Hawk and those who hate him, so what I thought I would be getting is half of the posters applauding the rant and half of them calling for Hawk to be fired.

What I actually got was more people applauding the rant. » Continue reading “You Gotta Be Bleepin’ Me Too, Hawk”

So the White Sox ended up winning by a final of 4-3 over the Rays. The winning streak is now at eight games. The Sox haven’t done that since July of 2010 when they won nine games in a row. But that is all secondary.

The real story of the day was events in the first and fourth inning of the game. In yesterday’s game, AJ Pierzynski had a terrible slide in the game that apparently resulted in a spiking of Ben Zobrist. As I was watching it, it just looked like an incredibly awful slide to break up a double play opportunity. Not like someone intentionally trying to hurt another player. But because AJ is involved, you have to wonder.

Fast forward to today as nothing else happened suspicious in yesterday’s game. Bacon gets hit in the top of the first inning. Nothing happened to any Rays players. Probably because it was the first inning and Bacon wasn’t hurt. Then in the fourth inning, AJ gets hit in the back by Alex Cobb. You might be thinking, um ok why? Is the ball just getting away or is something up.  » Continue reading “The Game Ended Up Secondary As White Sox Sweep Rays”

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Keith Allison

“I don’t know what it was like facing Randy Johnson when he was young. But this kid, he’s going to be great, and I think he has a real bright future as a starter.”

That is a great compliment to Chris Sale’s ability as a starter from Rays outfielder Ben Zobrist. And Sale put on a performance in front of a large group of his family and friends as the Sox beat the Rays 2-1. The young southpaw struck out fifteen batters, one shy of the club record. He threw 80 of his 115 pitches for strikes and only gave up one run, an RBI single to Jose Lobaton that drove in Zobrist.

In his 7.1 innings pitches, Sale gave up just three hits and two walks. Jesse Crain came on to finish the eighth and allowed no baserunners. Addison Reed picked up his fifth save in a perfect inning. » Continue reading “StriKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKing Out the Rays”

That is a question Sox fans have been asking the last few days. For the first time all season, there has been a successful homestand. And the team has just been fun to watch.

Now they are off on a three-game road-trip to visit the Tampa Bay Rays. You could say the big test is coming now with the weather heating up and whether the team can keep clicking on on cylinders when needed.

Here is what you should know coming up over the next three games:

2012 Record: White Sox: 26-22, 2nd in AL Central. Rays: 29-19, 1st in in AL East

2012 Series Record:  0-0

2011 Series Record: 4-4

All-Time Series Record: 63-46 (The Sox are 32-19 in Tampa)

The following pitchers are expected to start in the three games:

Chris Sale: 5-2, 2.50 ERA, 46K v. Matt Moore: 1-4, 5.07 ERA, 48K

Philip Humber: 1-2, 5.80 ERA, 42K v. James Shields: 6-2, 3.63 ERA, 66K

TBD v Alex Cobb: 2-0, 2.25 ERA, 8K.

Monday’s game is at 1:10 pm, Tuesday’s game is at 6:10 pm and Wednesday’s game is at 12:10 pm. All times CDT. » Continue reading “Should We Believe? Series Preview: White Sox @ Rays”

Carlos Quentin, a players’ selection, makes the All-Star game this year. The Sox have not had a starter voted into the mid-summer classic since Frank Thomas in 1996. While Mark Buehrle and Esteban Loaiza did start games, they were pitchers and thus not voted to start the game by fans.

Well deserved honor for Carlos Quentin. The snub of The King baffles me however. I mean, TCQ is nice, but Paul Konerko definitely deserves to be an all-star. And you have the chance to remedy this situation.

As in past years, the final man on each roster is left up to the fans. Paul Konerko is on the ballot with Adam Jones, Ben Zobrist, Victor Martinez and Alex Gordon.

Vote early and vote often. Go here to remedy this ridiculous situation and get The King to the All-Star game.

It only took seven games, but the White Sox stopped playing horribly long enough to win a game, beating the Rays 9-2 and avoiding the sweep.

Gavin Floyd pitched six wonderful innings, although he had a little bit of trouble early on. Floyd threw a lot of pitches through the first two innings, including enough to load the bases in the second. Luckily he got out of the inning on a 1-2-3 double play without allowing a run to score.
» Continue reading “Oh Look! A Win!”

The White Sox did it again. Behind great pitching from John Danks, the Sox lost their sixth game in a row, 2-1.

Like most of his starts, Danks pitched well. He gave up two runs on seven hits in seven innings. He gave up a triple to Ben Zobrist in the first after Alex Rios was unable to come up with the ball quickly enough. Zobrist came around to score after Felipe Lopez grounded out to Gordon Beckham. In the fifth inning, Zobrist singled. The next batter, Sean Rodriguez, tripled and Zobrist scored.

» Continue reading “Anemic Offense Strikes Again”

The White Sox defeated the Rays today with a final score of 4-2. The win today was mostly uneventful but there were some amazing highlights and lowlights in the game. Phil Humber was making his season start for the team and boy did he deliver. Especially since he is only a fifth starter. After an early walk that led to a run, you could already see the Jeff Marquez camp getting ready to scream for him to be here as the fifth starter after a very good outing in AAA Charlotte last night. However, Humber settled down and scattered 4 hits over 6 innings with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. He only gave up one earned run in his outing and has lowered his ERA to 3.38 for the season.

Phil Humber

After Humber’s great outing, Will Ohman came into the game. Of course, I along with all White Sox fans was nervous to see Ohman. In his outings thus far this season, he has been ineffective to say the least. Particularly against left-handed batters who he should be getting out. Today, he proved the crowd wrong and retired all 3 of the 4 batters he faced. One was walked. Most importantly, he saw some lefties and retired them. That was definitely a fantastic thing to see in the game. After Ohman’s inning, Santos came in for an inning as well. He continued his streak of not allowing any runs to be scored on him while he pitched. » Continue reading “A Win That is Comforting”